Bonsai garden at Semmozhi Poonga park

Semmozhi Poonga is a paid entrance park in Chennai. It is run by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Horticulture and Plantation Crops and it features a bonsai garden. Most of the trees are Ficus microcarpa imported from China. Among them there are trees in containers that are about five years old (see picture above) and trees planted in the ground which are about 40 years old (see picture below). The majority of the potted plants were in local unglazed terracotta containers without feet. I felt that this garden is that it’s bedraggled.

Bharani jars from Kerala

Dakshinachitra is an open air museum of traditional South Indian architecture. Traditional houses displayed there also feature traditional household items. In a traditional Hindu house from the South Indian state of Kerala I saw interesting earthenware jars. Unlike the unglazed Indian terracotta ware used for cooking, these jars were glazed earthenware (see the picture). Later, I learned that in Kerala these jars are called Cheena Bharani because they were originally made in China for transporting preserved foods. Bharani jars would regularly end up in Kerala through maritime trade, where they were used for preparation and storage of Indian style pickles. To me, these jars emanate what Japanese call wabi. It was interesting to see three different traditional glazes and a very unintentional partial glazing used on the leftmost jar.

Cholamandal Artists' Village

Yesterday, I visited Cholamandal Artists' Village. Fifteen years ago, I met some of the village’s artists and visited their studios through my work. This time, I am just a tourist visiting their art gallery. Some of the art displayed there was of outstanding quality. One artist’s work caught my eye because it had a striking resemblance to suiseki or bonkei. They were ink drawings by K. R. Harie produced in 2009 (see pictures above and below).

Mahabalipuram

Yesterday, visited the town of Mahabalipuram about 60 km from Chennai. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the monolithic monuments built in the 7-9th centuries. Stone carving has been a traditional craft in this area for two thousand years. This time, I spent some time observing the work of the stone carvers. Everything except the finishing touches with a pointed chisel (picture “A” above) is done by power tools. First they shape a block of granite for a particular sculpture, by making parallel cuts (picture “B” above) with a diamond blade on an angled grinder. After that all major carving is done by the angled grinders (marked 3 in the picture below) and each artist goes through one or two blades per day. All finer carving is done with diamond bids marked 1 and 2 in the picture below. The bid marked 2 lasts only for 2-3 days, while the bid marked 3 may last for up to two weeks.

 

Despite of the use of power tools each sculpture takes an amazingly long time to make. For example, picture “A” below shows a sculpture which has been worked on for one and a half months. And those people work long hours. Picture “B” below shows a stature that’s been worked on for at least three months and there is still a lot of finishing work to be done.

 

Bonsai pots made in October

The oval pot shown above was made with a plaster mold and then was wood-fired. The iron in the clay completely consumed the glaze and the visible pattern is created by molten ash.
 
The oval pot shown below was formed on the wheel. No glaze, just iron oxide rubbed into the cracks.

Presentation by Bill Valavanis

 Earlier this month, I attended a presentation and a critique session by Bill Valavanis from the US. He is a well-known figure on the international bonsai scene. He has been doing bonsai for 50 years and has a long list of achievements. His presentation was informative and thought provoking, but not in a big way. There was a bit of self-advertising, but to me, when someone is presenting their bonsai credentials, it always comes down to five words: “show me your best tree”. He probably has some amazing bonsai in his collection, but he hadn't to showcased them well in his presentation. I think his presentation barely scratched the surface of his bonsai knowledge and I would definitely want to learn more from him. He studied bonsai in Japan and for me, the most interesting aspect of his presentation were occasional insights into Japanese mentality and values pertaining to bonsai.

Sydney Bonsai Spectacular

Last weekend, I saw an exhibition called Sydney Bonsai Spectacular held at Merrylands RSL. This was a joint effort of Sydney’s ten bonsai clubs. It was an interesting show. My favorite tree is shown below. In the past its trunk had no taper. Its owner split the trunk from the bottom and created a shari around the split area. It was a risky move, but it really paid off. It produced desired taper and added a lot of interest to the trunk.

There were quite a few trees with superb potential, which could have been turned from ‘good’ to ‘great’ by a simple change of balance in the branches or just by a greater amount of regular bonsai care. The exhibition also featured a few suiseki some of which are shown below.

 

Vintage Chinese pot



I bought a vintage Chinese bonsai pot. The previous owner Dorothy Koreshoff had it for a long time. According to her it is an imitation of Kanton green ware produced somewhere in northern China. It was certainly a mass-produced flower pot of its day. However, this pot tells a story. I instantly fell for the wonderful dragons-and-clouds decoration and beautiful running glaze forming tears all around the base (arrow 1, picture below). In fact, the glaze ran so much that the pot’s feet got completely stuck to the kiln shelf and had to be broken off (arrow 2), which probably was a normal practice. I know that the pot is old because it is wood-fired and mass-produced pottery in China is not wood-fired for many decades. The gloss on the inside surface of the pot (arrow 3) is molten wood ash. Also, only wood-firing produces flashes on unglazed surfaces. The flashing shown at (arrow 4) actually happened because another smaller pot was fired inside this pot. The weight of this smaller pot made the bottom of the big pot sag and it slightly distorted its whole form. All this makes this pot very unpretentious and reminds me of Yanagi Soetsu’s unknown craftsmen and the Mingei movement. The pot has no artist's mark. I also know how this pot was actually formed. The creases on the bottom of the pot shown at (5) indicate that the pot was formed by pressing a slab of clay into a mold. If the pot is old enough the mold could have been made of wood and not plaster. Now, you know what I mean when I say this pot tells a story.

Annual Exhibition of Bonsai Society of Australia 2011

Once again, I go to the Annual Exhibition of Bonsai Society of Australia. Same place different year. There were very few trees of interest to me. My favorite was the tree shown above. I could see only the demonstration by Pat Kennedy. He showed how to make a free form bonsai pot by making a plaster mold and pressing a clay slab into it. The demonstration was novel, informative and useful. The other demonstrations were by Joy Morton from New Zealand and Pham Bao Khanh Linh.

The funniest reference to bonsai

From this year’s Father’s Day catalogue of Shaver Shop.

Latest bonsai pots

Last month I had a few bonsai pots fired. See the photos below.

Round, 12×10 cm, unglazed, wood fired.

Left image - round, 20.5×7 cm, chun glaze, wood fired (sold).

Right image - hexagonal, 11.5×7 cm, celadon glaze, wood fired.

 

Top left immage - oval, 19×17.5×8 cm, tomato red glaze, electric kiln.

Bottom left image - oval, 28×23×6.5 cm, white glaze, wood fired.

Right image - square, 10×16 cm, unglazed, wood fired (sold).

P.S. For more info on wood-fired kilns see: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/during-recent-trip-to-canberra-with.html